Second Industrial Survey

Of all the sciences in New Zealand the social sciences have been the most neglected, particularly with regard to indigenous research. The few investigations that have seen the light of day have been brought about by political expediency and not by scientific inquiry. Political expediency seeks facts that fit into preconceived conclusions and disregards facts that controvert them. Scientific inquiry, on the other hand, seeks to collect facts and to consider what conclusions can be derived from them, As a result of the novelty of social research in this country, the impartial investigator is immediately confronted with the questions: What vested interest is sponsoring this inquiry; what is its ulterior motive? The basic and ever-present conflict between labour and capital will always limit the social researcher's available information and this is more so where industrial development is of recent origin than where relations between worker and employer have become fixed into established grooves. This becomes particularly evident when you compare the relative lack of obstacles of a social research organisation such as Mass Observation in Britain, with those which confront Dr. Hare. The comparatively early demise of the Social Science Research Bureau after the publication of A Survey of Standards of Life of New Zealand Dairy Farmers in 1940 is also food for thought.

Seemingly work of this nature can only be carried out independently of government departments or government control. The truth is, I think, that any investigation that pleases both employer and employee can have some hope of immediate success, as is witnessed by the Industrial Psychology Division, where increased production and better working conditions are the primary subjects of inquiry.